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[FattusCattus]

I know this will seem a very silly question to most of you - but indulge a poor tail-ender trying to improve himself.

When batting, do you watch the ball pitch, and then watch it all the way onto the bat?

I seem to watch the ball out of the hand - have a general idea of where it pitches and throw my hands through it. Need to change the mentality!

[tim2000s]

I spent nets this pre-season watching hand pitch bat and really noticed now much more i picked the ball than when i didn't.

[Canners]

i honestly dont know i watch it out of the hand and then play it, i dont think im watching the ball when it makes contact with the bat tho

[Buzz]

This is not a stupid question at all. it is really hard to watch the ball that closely, especially when playing attacking shots.
I try telling myself ' eyes up ' to ensure I watch the ball more closely.

[tim2000s]

It is amazing how much concentration you need in a 15 minute net session to watch the ball that closely. It's exhausting. In a game it will be much harder!

[FattusCattus]

Ok - but timing aside, it is a good idea to attempt to watch the ball off the pitch and onto the bat?

(Bearing in mind the standard I play at, the pace is relatively medium, and I am setting myself up to block the ball, or mete out extreme violence to it).

[Colesy]

We were told by our coach to designate the offside and legside two separate colours and in the nets, when you play a shot, as you hit the ball, shout the colour of the side of the wicket you hit the ball if that makes sense. For example. If the offside is Blue and legside is yellow you'd have to shout this colour as you're hitting the ball to that side. This apparently gets you to watch the ball closer as I have the same problem as you.

only problem is in games now I find myself shouting colours

[alexrickyponting]

I, along with most, normally watch the "window" or area surrounding the ball not the ball itself. I have recently tried to change this meaning I gained the pleasure of seeing the ball cut in from outside off and roll along the ground past my bat before I heard the bails fall off on saturday 
Today I did the same (watching the ball not getting bowled!) and got a gritty 95 in 36 overs against a fairly poor attack. I felt more comfortable watching the ball and mre sure of my shots after the first few overs where it still felt weird.

[FattusCattus]

Right -  I need a good session with the bowling machine, just watching the ball onto the bat - not easy at our club's overpopulated net sessions.

Any windows of opportunty Phillip?

[RossViper]

Hi,

Lets apply some science. I actually studied this at uni so I kinda know what I'm talking about.

People often say they watch the ball all the way onto the bat, (Boycott etc!)  but for balls speeds over about 60 mph it's actually impossible to really do that. Why? the eyes can move quick enough. This is true even for first class players, even for the greats!

So what do the pros actually do then? Well its a case of seeing it out of the hand (which we will come back too), seeing it pitch, and this is the important part, the eyes then move to where they think the ball is going to meet the bat -i.e. they jump forward - this is less noticeable to spin, and more evident against pace, but generally you need special tech to see it happening. You can see the end point though, all those slow motion replays on sky of some one smashing it and the close up on the face!

So back to the ball out of the hand bit. This is most often what makes the difference between "good and bad". Better players, can tell more quickly once the ball has left the hand, the line and length of the delivery. The sooner you know where the ball is coming the easier it gets to hit it - right!

So back to your question. If you can, and its not easy to do, you need to try and find the ball hitting the bat. Pragmatically the only thing you can really do to work on this is to try and watch the ball as closely as you can. but you might find that you watch it closely until it pitches then "lose" it. Its that bit that you can now address, and try and move to point of impact.

Good luck, this is a very hard thing to get right.

Ross

[Johnny]

Similar to Colesy, I've been asked before to shout hit, as I make contact with the ball. In order to shout at the right time you HAVE to watch the ball more closely

[pacman75cricket]

Same doing drills last night taliking wait wait yes

[no1northernbloke]

This is what I find... when batting against the bowling machine at speeds at less than 75ish miles an hour I don't concentrate that hard on the ball when it gets dropped into the machine. BUT once it gets turned upto 90 I watch very very very closely. The focus of the concentration narrows to the hole where the ball comes out. I've tried to maintain the concentration at 75 and less, but cannot do it. Short attention span I guess.

When batting in a match, I try to watch the hand as much as I can. With spinners I watch the ball as it comes down to see which way it's turning - this just helps concentration and also helps not to make oyu look to much a of dick if you can't pick it out the hand.

[langer17]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Eyemancomau

Also go to the website and it says how watching it out of the hand means you react slower, so you basically want to watch it be delivered, but then you want to focus on the pitch where you think it will land, and the sooner you pick where it will land on the the pitch, the better.

[Simmy]

This is what I find... when batting against the bowling machine at speeds at less than 75ish miles an hour I don't concentrate that hard on the ball when it gets dropped into the machine. BUT once it gets turned upto 90 I watch very very very closely. The focus of the concentration narrows to the hole where the ball comes out. I've tried to maintain the concentration at 75 and less, but cannot do it. Short attention span I guess.

When batting in a match, I try to watch the hand as much as I can. With spinners I watch the ball as it comes down to see which way it's turning - this just helps concentration and also helps not to make oyu look to much a of dick if you can't pick it out the hand.

what standard do you play as netting at 90mph is nuts lol